Federal Circuit Revisits Willfulness Post Halo

On remand from the Supreme Court's decision in Halo Elecs., Inc. v. Pulse Elecs., Inc., 136 S. Ct. 1923 (2016), the Federal Circuit recently issued a revised decision in Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, Inc., No. 2013-1668 (Fed. Cir. 2016).  The decision provides insight into the court's interpretation of the Halo standard and enhanced damages.

In its en banc decision in In re Seagate Technology, 497 F.3d 1360 (Fed. Cir. 2007), the Federal Circuit held that a district court may increase damages under 35 U.S.C. § 284 only if a patent owner shows by clear and convincing evidence that the infringer acted "despite an objectively high likelihood that its actions constituted infringement," and then also showed, again by clear and convincing evidence, that the risk of infringement "was either known or so obvious that it should have been known to the accused infringer."